


heartsick

by orphan_account



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-22 01:45:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12470724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Charlotte is a doctor with a crush on her patient, and Cordelia may be finding more reasons than strictly necessary to visit the hospital.





	heartsick

Charlotte meets Cordelia when she is twenty-five, and she has never properly been in love before. She has a college degree and a job at the hospital and suspicious relatives who ask why she doesn’t want to go out with some nice boy they know, but she does not have a relationship. And that’s really fine, or at least it was until a ridiculously pretty blonde girl stumbles into the hospital and demands that it isn’t.

“I’m Cordelia,” she says from where Charlotte has her sitting on a hospital bed. She’s swinging her legs and playing with a piece of her hair and looks awfully good for someone with a fever and apparent nausea.

“You have food poisoning, Cordelia,” says Charlotte, who already knows Cordelia’s name from the records, and is nothing if not professional, even with girls who would’ve made her too flustered to talk if she had met them in high school.

Cordelia’s face falls, and Charlotte suddenly wants nothing more than to make that look go away forever, because no one this pretty should look so disappointed. “It’s not serious, I swear,” she says. “I’m going to prescribe you some antibiotics and recommend that you avoid wherever gave you this food from now on, but you’ll be totally fine in a few days.”

Charlotte’s patient looks even more disappointed at this news, if that’s possible. She looks to the floor and laughs a little bit, saying, “Well, that’s going to be difficult since it was my cooking.”

Well, apparently not even the most beautiful women can be good at everything. Charlotte laughs, “Aw, don’t worry about it. We can’t all be five-star cooks, right?”

Cordelia looks her in the eye. “I’m a professional chef.”

Oh. Well, shit. “Oh, god, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-”

“It’s fine,” Cordelia interrupts. “I know, it’s fine. Besides, I didn’t get food poisoning the rest of the times, so it could be worse, I guess.”

Charlotte laughs uncomfortably, “Yeah, I guess. Um, so you could go wait outside and we’ll give you that prescription.”

“Okay,” Cordelia says, and she jumps down onto the floor, still playing with her hair, twisting a wavy strand of it between her fingers absentmindedly.  
“You have really pretty hair,” Charlotte blurts out without thinking, then immediately regrets it. God, it’s not acceptable to just say things like that to random girls who come in and don’t even-

“Oh my god, thank you so much,” Cordelia says, blushing, and her face lights up again, back to how it was before Charlotte told her about the food poisoning. Charlotte smiles at her, tentatively, and leads her out the door. “Have a nice day!”

After Cordelia leaves, Charlotte takes a moment to catch her breath, but then moves on. It was an uncomfortable encounter, a bit weird, and bit less composed than normal, but altogether not that special, and in a week she will probably have had so many weird patients with even stranger ailments, and she’ll have forgotten the pretty chef who can’t cook.

It doesn’t exactly happen that way.

Six days later, Cordelia shows up again with a sprained wrist, which she claims needs to be looked at immediately by a doctor. A mildly sprained wrist is really not a serious enough injury to require medical advice, but Charlotte lets it slide.

“Hello again,” Cordelia says, smiling at her from where she sits in the room, swinging her legs again, just like last week.

Charlotte raises her eyebrows. “Hello. So you sprained your wrist?”

“Yep! Don’t know how, but it definitely requires medical attention!”

“Um, okay,” Charlotte says. She takes Cordelia’s hand and checks her reflexes to determine if any medical attention is actually needed. It’s not. “Your wrist doesn’t really seem that bad? But if you feel like it’s sprained, just try not to use it and be sure to ice it.”

“Okay,” Cordelia says, looking her in the eyes for a moment longer than necessary. Charlotte realizes a second later that she hasn’t let go of Cordelia’s hand, and drops it, blushing and looking away.

“You have really pretty eyes,” Cordelia says, getting up.

“Oh my god, um, thank you,” Charlotte replies, heart rate speeding up ridiculously. This girl was going to kill her. It was absolutely ridiculous that she was becoming so uncharacteristically stupid for a girl who she had spoken to all of two times. And who was possibly just a pretty straight girl trying to be friendly.

Cordelia smiles at her, “You’re welcome! I like your lipstick too, by the way!” 

Charlotte was going to die. Right here, right now, Charlotte was going to pass out and die, because Cordelia was unfairly beautiful and Charlotte didn’t want to get her hopes up, but two compliments? Back to back? Charlotte’s hopes were definitely going up. “Oh my god, thank you so much. You’re so sweet, honestly. And I love your lipstick, too.”

“Thank you so much!” Cordelia says. Charlotte smiles at her stupidly for a minute, before Cordelia stops short mid-walking to the door, and spins around, digging around in her bag.

“Shit, I totally forgot! Sorry, I’m such a mess, but here!” Cordelia shoves a plastic wrapped cookie into Charlotte’s hand. “I made extra the other day and I figured I’d bring you something to thank you! And,” she adds, laughing, “to prove I’m actually a good cook sometimes.”

“Wow, thank you! That’s really sweet, you didn’t have to!” Charlotte says. 

“No, no, it’s no problem! Thank you again, have a nice day!” Cordelia says, smiling widely and waving a little bit at Charlotte as she leaves.

So, Cordelia has a beautiful face and a beautiful personality and brings cookies to her doctors. That’s fine. Yes, Charlotte is probably going to think about her constantly for at least the next week, but the chances that Cordelia will need to return to the hospital a third time are incredibly unlikely. Charlotte will definitely be able to get over this eventually.

As she’s walking down the hall, Cordelia turns, and Charlotte thinks she hears a quiet “See you soon!” and sees Cordelia wink at her. Charlotte pinches her hand for a second. Is this a dream? Holy shit, is her pretty patient actually possibly-flirting with her? Forget it, Charlotte is never going to get over this.

***

Two weeks later, Cordelia returns yet again, and Charlotte would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about her in the past days. Sure, she’s only briefly spoken to the other girl, but it was certainly enough to leave an impression. When she walks in, Charlotte is surprised into asking incredulously, “You’re hurt again?”

Cordelia laughs, shaking her head. “Not me this time!” She stands up and the man next to her stands up as well, following her into the room. 

Charlotte tries not to stare at the man, but she can’t help wondering who he is. She hadn’t noticed a wedding ring on Cordelia’s hand, but he could still be a boyfriend. Could Cordelia have a boyfriend? Charlotte tries to tell herself that she shouldn’t worry that much about her patient’s relationship status, but it's hopeless. She’s already a bit too involved in the hope that Cordelia could possibly want a girlfriend more than a boyfriend. 

She really hopes that the man isn’t Cordelia’s boyfriend.

The man notices Charlotte’s gaze and gives her a questioning look, raising his eyebrows in amusement. She blushes and looks away, focusing on Cordelia instead. She’s wearing a green low-cut top, which looks ridiculously good and - maybe this isn’t better. Charlotte looks back at the man.

“So, what seems to be the problem, Mr….”

“Whizzer Brown. Nice to meet you, doc,” he says. “Um, I got bit by a dog the other day. I don’t really think it’s serious, but Cordelia suggested I come get it checked out just in case.”

“Alright, I’ll take a look,” Charlotte says. And then, because sometimes her self-control loses out to her impulses, “Cordelia’s your…?”

“Friend,” Cordelia says quickly. “We’re friends.” 

“Okay,” Charlotte says, smiling at Cordelia, who blushes and smiles back.

Whizzer coughs, making them break eye contact and look back at him. He smirks at them, and Charlotte hurries over to him, pretending to be busy looking at the bite on his hand, while she’s actually very busy avoiding meeting his all too knowing gaze. At least, if anything, Whizzer’s reactions are only supporting her previous suspicion that Cordelia could be trying to flirt with her.

Charlotte takes one look at Whizzer’s hand and knows it’s not serious. It’s honestly so far from serious that had it happened to her, she probably would have washed it out and forgotten about it. But she’s starting to get the feeling that both Cordelia and Whizzer already know this.

“I’ll give you a bandage, you might want to put that on later if it starts to get irritated,” Charlotte offers. “But that’s all, I’m assuming you don’t want to have to pay for any kind of ointment for something like this.”

Whizzer laughs, “I don’t. Thanks for looking at it, have a nice day!”

He starts to walk out of the room abruptly, and Charlotte blinks in surprise. “Hey, wait, I didn’t even give you the bandage yet!” 

Whizzer throws one last look over this shoulder, lowering his eyes at his friend and saying, “Oh, don’t worry, Cordelia’ll get it! I’m just going to go pull my car up for us.”

The door slams shut behind him, and Cordelia smiles apologetically at Charlotte. “Sorry about him,” she says nervously. 

She’s playing with her hair again, and it momentarily distracts Charlotte before she responds. “Oh, it’s fine. He seemed nice.”

Cordelia hums in agreement, and Charlotte laughs and says, “So, you thought that was bad enough that he needed to come to the hospital?”

Cordelia smiles coyly, “Well, I’m not the doctor here. How was I supposed to know it wasn’t that bad?”

“Of course, how could I forget. Because it’s totally normal for patients to come see me whenever they get even mildly injured,” Charlotte says sarcastically.

Cordelia giggles, but her smile turns a little bit softer. “Guess I’m not a normal one of your patients, then,” she says.

She takes a step closer, and Charlotte breath catches in her throat. Her eyes involuntarily flicker down to Cordelia’s lips, and if the way Cordelia smiles is any indication, she definitely notices. Charlotte leans in a little bit closer and -

One of the nurses in the internal medicine unit bursts into the room. “Excuse me, are you done with them? Sorry, but we’re short three staff today and we really need assistance with some of the other patients,” she says.

Charlotte takes a step back, and Cordelia smiles wryly, saying “Yeah, I’ll just be going. Thanks for your help, doc.”

After she leaves, the nurse, a friendly older woman with a husband who works as a surgeon, turns to Charlotte and raises an eyebrow. “She’s an odd one, isn’t she? Always coming in and requesting you. Do you know her?”

Charlotte blinks in surprise. “She requests me? No, I’ve only seen her here.”

The nurse chuckles, “Of course she requests you, why else would we be giving an internal medical doctor patients with insignificant physical injuries?”

“Oh,” Charlotte breathes. It makes total sense and maybe she was dumb to be so surprised by it, but in her defense, she’s been very focused on other things during Cordelia’s visits.

“Sorry about interrupting like that, by the way, but I figured you were done. I mean, I saw that boy’s hand and it was definitely not serious enough to warrant so much of your time. Hypochondriacs, am I right?”

“Yeah,” Charlotte says softly, thinking about the way Cordelia’s eyes looked in the moment before they were interrupted. “That’s probably what it is.”

***

The next time Charlotte sees Cordelia is hardly a week later, and the day has been so stressful and her patients have been so horrible and miserable, but she completely forgets all of it the second she sees Cordelia waiting for her, wearing a pretty green sweater and smiling nervously. 

“Hey,” says Cordelia the second after the door shuts behind them. 

“Hello,” Charlotte says, and she smiles as though she’s amused to see Cordelia, but well, amused isn’t the most truthful word to use. She has literal butterflies in her stomach, and she kind of feels like she might pass out if her heart rate speeds up anymore, but it’s okay. Probably. She takes a deep breath, and musters up all the courage she usually doesn’t have around girls like Cordelia. “So, should I even listen to your injury or disease or whatever it is today, or should we just skip that part?”

Cordelia widens her eyes dramatically, and says, “What are you talking about? I have never, ever overexaggerated any medical condition ever in my life. And I’ll have you know that I have a totally valid illness that’s brought me here today.”

“Okay,” Charlotte says, “Let’s hear it.”

Cordelia smiles real wide and innocent, looking up at Charlotte. “I’m afraid I’m awfully heartsick.”

Charlotte can’t help but laugh immediately, grinning at Cordelia. Why did she like this girl so much again? “Well, I don’t know, I could maybe write you a prescription to help with that.”

“Oh, can you?” Cordelia says, stepping closer to Charlotte so that they’re almost exactly in the position from last week again. It’s making Charlotte feel like she might have a heart attack, but she holds out long enough to grab her prescription pad and scribble her number on to a page, before ripping it off and pressing it into Cordelia’s hand.

“Call me,” Charlotte says. “We can talk a bit more about your condition when I’m not on the clock, maybe? How about over a coffee?”

Cordelia beams, “Sounds perfect.” She leans closer, and then finally, finally, finally, presses her lips to Charlotte’s in a quick but hard kiss. When she pulls away, Charlotte finds herself trying to lean right back in, but Cordelia pulls away, laughing.

“You have to work, remember? I’ll see you later.”

In this moment, Charlotte would probably be willing to quit her job just to spend another ten minutes alone with Cordelia. But there’s a reasonable part of her that went through medical school and knows that’s a bad decision, so she nods and says, “Yeah, okay. How about seven tonight? I know it’s soon but I want to see you.”

Cordelia nods eagerly, “Yeah, of course! I’ll call you but yeah, let’s meet tonight. If we don’t hang out soon I’ll probably be forced to catch the flu, and nobody wants that, am I right?”

Charlotte laughs, “Oh, so you’re admitting you’ve faked a couple of your hospital visits?”

Cordelia smiles mischievously, “I admit nothing. If you want more information, I guess you’ll have to wait ‘til tonight.”

“Can’t wait,” Charlotte says genuinely, gazing fondly at her. And as Cordelia waves and kisses Charlotte’s cheek quickly before leaving, Charlotte smiles fondly right back at her, already sure that she’ll be seeing a lot more of Cordelia for a long time after this.


End file.
